Patterns of psychological contract and their relationships to employee well-being and in-role performance at work: longitudinal evidence from university employees

Abstract

This study identified patterns of psychological contract (PC) and examined how these patterns were related to employee well-being and in-role performance over time (T1–T3). PC was measured at T1 based on cross-sectional data and well-being and performance longitudinally in two consecutive years (T1?T3) among university employees. Latent profile analysis revealed six different patterns of PC at T1. These were labelled (1) strong and balanced (n = 131), (2) average and balanced (n = 382), (3) employer-focused (n = 79), (4) employee-focused (n = 59), (5) balanced transactional (n = 224) and (6) employee-focused relational (n = 322). The longitudinal findings showed that the employees in PC patterns 1 and 2 experienced more vigour at T1–T3 than those in pattern 5, while the employees in pattern 2 reported higher proficiency at work at T1–T2 than those in pattern 6. Employee job satisfaction did not vary between patterns. Altogether, the PC pattern that included many different obligations on the part of both employee and employer seemed to result in better employee well-being and in-role performance.     

Budget deficits and stock prices: International evidence

The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence regarding deficits and their effects on stock prices. We investigate whether changes in deficits cause changes in stock prices and if so, in what direction. We use Granger causality tests and impulse response analysis of vector autoregressive models to assess the relationship between budget deficits and stock prices in several industrialized nations. The evidence from impulse response analysis and Granger causality tests shows that only in the U.S. deficit reductions have an inverse effect on equity returns.     

Financial globalization and technological innovation: International evidence

Country’s technology progress and innovation development not only depends on internal knowledge stock and human capital, but also external financial resources. This paper explores the effect of financial globalization on technological innovation through empirical investigations by using the system generalized method of moment method and panel data from 110 countries over the period of 1985–2015. Our empirical results suggest that financial globalization exerts a significant enhancing effect on technological innovation and this effect becomes stronger for countries with better institution quality. A one unit change of financial globalization can bring about a 0.6 % increase in patent applications. The comprehensive evidence shows that financial development, not trade integration, is the main channel through which financial globalization promotes national innovation. Subsample analysis shows that financial globalization only promotes innovation development of Non- Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Our findings offer new insights into the influence of financial openness on technology progress.     

调整劳动合同期限规则建立稳定就业灵活用工机制

劳动合同期限规则(以下简称“合同期限规则”)是指国家对劳动合同期限的种类、相互关系和实施所作的法律规定,是劳动法律的重要内容之一。1994年7月我国颁布的《劳动法》规定了合同期限规则,它的实施对推动我国用工制度改革、建立劳动合同制度发挥了重要作用。随着市场经济的迅速发展,我国经济正在融入全球经济一体化,现行合同期限规则显现出一定的局限性。完善合同期限规则,适应我国     

Labour standards and capacity in global subcontracting chains: evidence from a construction MNC

This article investigates how fundamental labour rights specified in international framework agreements are implemented and monitored in subcontracting chains. It shows how labour's capacity for workplace‐based monitoring is influenced by factors such as ownership structures, the societal context, and, most importantly, the institutions and dynamics of local labour control.     

Bank efficiency and access to credit: International evidence

This paper examines the impact of bank efficiency on access to credit. We test the hypothesis that higher bank efficiency, meaning a better ability of banks to operate at lower costs, favors access to credit for firms. To this end, we perform a cross-country analysis with firm-level data on access to credit and bank-level data to compute bank efficiency, using a sample of about 54,000 firms from 76 countries. We find that greater bank efficiency improves access to credit for firms. The beneficial impact of bank efficiency to alleviate credit constraints takes place through the demand channel by reducing borrower discouragement to apply for a loan. Whereas the positive impact of bank efficiency on credit access is observed for firms of all sizes, the effect tends to be more pronounced in countries with a better economic and institutional framework. Our results therefore support policies favouring bank efficiency to enhance access to credit.     

Integrated thinking and sustainability reporting assurance: International evidence

Recently, there has been increasing demand by stakeholders for firms to demonstrate how they create value within the context of their operating environment. Consequently, a new reporting approach, integrated reporting (IR), was conceptualised with its development linked to the firm's integrated thinking (IT). Yet very little is known about the effects of IT on firms' reporting decisions. Hence, we investigate whether IT influences firms' decision to publish an assured sustainability report. Using an international dataset, we find that IT is positively associated with sustainability reporting assurance. We also find that this association is moderated by the type of legal system such that for firms in code law countries, the IT effects are reduced. Nevertheless, the effects of IT remain strong, indicating that IT is important for reporting decisions regardless of the firm's contextual setting. These findings have implications for policymakers and organisations interested in promoting high-quality sustainability reporting.     

On the origins of land use regulations: Theory and evidence from US metro areas

We model residential land use constraints as the outcome of a political economy game between owners of developed and owners of undeveloped land. Land use constraints benefit the former group via increasing property prices but hurt the latter via increasing development costs. In this setting, more desirable locations are more developed and, as a consequence of political economy forces, more regulated. These predictions are consistent with the patterns we uncover at the US metropolitan area level.     

上海企业劳动标准如何接轨国际劳工标准

劳动标准是人们在长期的生产经营活动中形成和发展的,规范劳动领域中具有广泛性、重复性行为,为劳动各方共同遵守的行为准则。 就劳动标准的实施应用来看,它一开始仅仅作为规范社会组织在组织劳动时的行为依据标准,用制度的形式维护劳动者和用人单位的合法权益。但随着社会经济发展,尤其是世界     

Profiling the desirable psychological contract for different groups of employees: evidence from Greece

This study aimed to examine potential variations in employees' perceptions of the desirable psychological contract, based on gender, age, and educational level. A total of 1145 employees – 642 of whom were female – aged between 18 and 64, who had attended all educational levels, participated in the study. T-tests and analyses of variance suggest that there is no uniform view of the psychological contract content among different groups of employees. With the exception of involvement with decision-making affecting the organization, women tend to expect more from their employment relationship. As for age groups, the ‘new generation’ emphasizes balance in personal life, the ‘old generation’ is rather indifferent, while the ‘desert generation’ is the most demanding and attached to the ‘old psychological contract’. Finally, individuals with at least college education have relatively increased expectations, with the exception of co-worker support for personal problems and continuous training.     

Administrative Records and Surveys as Basis for Statistics on International Labour Migration

This paper discusses possible sources for statistics to be used for describing and analysing the number, structure, situation, development and impact of migrant workers. The discussion is focused on key, intrinsic features of the different sources, important for the understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and draws the reader's attention to features which may tend to undermine the quality of the statistics produced as well as ways in which the impact of such features can be evaluated and, if possible, reduced. This discussion thereby provides concrete illustrations of many of the methodological issues referred to in (Hoffmann, 1995). The paper is organized around three key groups of migrant workers:

• (a) Persons who are arriving in a country to work there, i.e. the inflow of foreign workers;
• (b) Persons who are leaving their country to find work abroad, i.e. the outllow of migrant workers
• (c) Stock of foreign workers in the country.

Definitions of these groups are given in section 2. Sections 3 to 5 review, for each key group, main possible sources of statistics and the extent to which they can cover the group and identify separately important sub-groups. The discussion in each section distinguishes between administrative registrations and statistical surveys, and deals with the capacity of a source to provide estimates of the size of the group, and whether it can provide estimates of the amount of change in the group over time, or at least indications of the direction of such changes. Section 6 outlines problems related to other data quality dimensions, such as frequency and timeliness of the statistics as well as the validity, reliability and consistency of the registration of variables used to describe migrant workers and where they come from. Section 7 presents strategies for the development of statistics on migrant workers based on two model scenarios for “countries” of different geographic circumstances and institutional capacities. Summary recommendations on how to organize cooperation, for the production of statistics on migrant workers, between the relevant agencies and between them and the potential users are proposed in the concluding section. The overall conclusion is that trying to piece together a coherent statistical picture of any of the above key groups is similar to trying to put together a large puzzle based on photographs of a rapidly changing reality, with important pieces missing and many of the available photographs out of focus.     

International Comparisons of Labour Productivity in Transport and Communications: The US,the UK and Germany

We construct benchmark estimates of labour productivity covering the transport and communications sectors for the US, UK and Germany for 1992 and 1993. The US lead is substantial in rail and trucking, even after adjusting for differences in stage length, but Britain leads in air transport and all three countries have similar productivity levels in local transport. In telecommunications and postal services the US enjoys a large lead over both the UK and Germany. We compare these estimates based on industry data with ones derived from the national accounts and find them similar in communications but not in transport. For 1973–96, and also 1989–96, productivity was growing slower in the US, hence some of the gap has been closed.     

International transfer pricing and income shifting: evidence from the UK

The potential use of international transfer pricing (ITP) as an income-shifting mechanism by multinational enterprises (MNEs) has long been recognized. However, there is relatively little evidence to substantiate or discount this claim in relation to UK-based foreign-controlled enterprises (FCEs). This paper examines the possible use of ITP as an income-shifting mechanism by FCEs operating in the UK. The methodological approach involves the comparison of the profitability (performance) and dividend (post-performance) distributions of a sample of FCEs with those of UK-controlled enterprises (UKCEs) over a two-year period. The two samples are matched on the basis of their total assets (capability). Results reveal significant differences in the profitability and dividend distributions of the two groups. FCEs underperform UKCEs, but their level of dividend distribution outstrips those of UKCEs. Based on this sample of seventy-two companies, a firm is more likely to be an FCE, rather than a UKCE, if it reports a combination of lower performance and higher post-performance distribution. Evidence of significant income shifting by FCEs is confirmed and the claim that ITP is the key mechanism for such shifts cannot be dismissed.     

Economic policy uncertainty and cost of debt financing: International evidence

Prior research shows that economic policy uncertainty affects a wide range of corporate financial decisions; however, there is little research on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and cost of debt financing across countries. In this paper, we argue that economic policy uncertainty affects cost of debt financing through two mechanisms including information asymmetry and default risk. With a sample of 163,243 firm-years across 17 countries from 2003 to 2016, we find that economic policy uncertainty positively affects cost of debt financing and this effect is stronger during the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009. Moreover, our research findings show that large firms’ debt financing cost is less affected by economic policy uncertainty.     

International outsourcing and productivity: evidence from the Irish electronics industry

This paper examines the effect of international outsourcing of intermediate inputs on productivity at the level of the plant, with a focus on the electronics industry in the Republic of Ireland. The effect of international outsourcing on plant-level productivity depends critically on the nature of the outsourced inputs (services or tangibles) and on the plant's export intensity. Outsourcing of materials provides significant productivity gains, but this effect holds only for plants with low export intensities.     

Creating social and environmental value through integrated thinking: International evidence

Integrated thinking (IT) is a managerial mindset increasingly discussed in the context of value creation. Through the lens of systems theory, this study examines how the degree to which IT is embedded in a firm's strategy and day-to-day business processes is associated with the firm's social and environmental value creation. Using a broad international dataset, we find strong evidence that our measure of IT is positively related to a firm's sustainability performance (SP), which we use to operationalize social and environmental value creation (or erosion). Our results also reveal that the increase in a firm's SP might come at the cost of a short-term decrease in financial performance (FP). We find no indication, however, that IT induces a trade-off between SP and long-term FP. Integrated thinking appears to stipulate long-term financial value creation instead. We further explore moderating factors within the organizational and institutional context of our sample firms and highlight implications for society, corporate practice, and policymaking.